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big kids' room: sad green to DIY makeover

This project is an all time favorite of mine because not only did it come out BOSS, but it totally got our mojo flowin' for several other DIY's - you know, confidence is a big deal when moving forward with decorating your home DIY style. It's huge!

So when we first moved in, I thought I'd be a cool mom and let Carter PICK the color he wanted to paint his room - just a 4 year old boy getting to PICK HIS OWN WALL COLOR. Great idea, Nicole! Anyway, he chose the greeniest green on planet earth which made HIM super happy, but not so much mama (especially because his room is visible from the main living area!!!! Cute mommy/son moment but...).

When the kids begged to share a room and we found out we were expecting baby 3, nesting dictated that we were going to have to give the new shared room some love - IT HAD TO HAPPEN. So this was our first go at shiplap - it preceeded THIS awesome entertainment center project. All the heart eyes for all the shiplap in all the places.

It was relatively easy to put up there on the wall, thanks to hubby's new toy: the air compressor fueled nail gun! I swear, Chad is benefiting from all these DIY's just as much!

OUR PROCESS:

1. We looked up just how much shiplap would cost us as opposed to nailing planks to the wall (my original thought) - turns out it was very affordable at the Depot. I thought it would be so expensive given everyone's obsession (including my own) with Fixer Upper! At the time it was $7 a board and we needed 14 - I think the price varies though (just the other day I saw it was priced at $9?). Anyway, our first go at buying the 14 boards ended in disaster: I told Chad to have the guy cut the boards ".5 of an inch less than 10 feet." He heard, ".5 of a FOOT less than 10 feet." So we had 14 wrongly cut boards which ended up becoming the reason the entertainment center project even happened in the first place.

2. Once we had the correctly cut boards in our possession, it was time to rock and roll the project! We started from the top of the wall since the bottom housed all of the electrical ports - something that freaked us out when we first started. We were prolonging having to tackle those configurations.

3. It went very smoothly! I held the light boards up, Chad got the leveler (CEILINGS AND BASEBOARDS ARE NOT ALWAYS LEVEL - IT'S MORE IMPORTANT FOR THE BOARD TO BE STRAIGHT, NOT NECESSARILY MATCHED UP WITH THE CEILING/BASEBOARD. THE PROJECT WILL NOT LOOK RIGHT IF ALL THE LINES ARE SLIGHTLY SLANTED, AND IF IT DRIVES YOU CRAZY NOT HAVING THE BOARDS SQUARE WITH THE CEILING THEN YOU CAN ALWAYS ADD A SMALL TRIM TO SMOOTH OUT THE SIDES/TOP/BOTTOM LATER), once everything was tight and straight, Chad went through and shot 2 nails in each stud. Easy!

4. The electrical configuration was manhandled mainly by Chad, but here was the gist of it: First we had to cut the boards in order to accommodate the electrical port - we just eyeballed this part haha! It could have turned out badly but thankfully the DIY gods were with us. I'm sure there are TONS of tutorials on how to correctly do this on pinterest. Once we hand sawed out the appropriate sized square, Chad had to install an electrical extender using this tutorial, found at the Depot, of course - WE TURNED OFF THE ELECTRICITY TO THE HOUSE WHILE DOING THIS PART! IMPORTANT! AIN'T NO BODY HAS TIME TO GET ELECTROCUTED MID PROJECT!

5. Once it was all up on the wall and the electrical extenders were snugly in place, we decided that we wanted a rustic look so we didn't need to fill in the nail holes - that wasn't smart. Once we got to painting, we realized the nail holes were a distraction, so when Chad started on the second coat, he used the thick paint (same as we used in the kitchen and on the entertainment center) as nail filler. You know whenever you can just glob a big thing of paint on a little hole and it fills it? That's what he did - it ended up being an inconvenience. We learned though on the entertainment center project when it came to that part of the process so it ended up being a win!

5. Another coat of paint later and we were in business! Shiplap was up! Now it was time to decorate (sparsely) the gosh dang cutest wall on planet earth:

We already had those adorable beds from IKEA from a few years ago (THEY NO LONGER SELL THOSE EXACT ONES, BUT LINKED IS A SIMILAR LOOK). I'm so gosh dang glad we spent the money and got those gosh dang sweet things - I mean, look at how precious they are side by side! They weren't super pricey but a few years ago they were to us!

The rest of the room just needed a swift coat of paint and new curtains! I MEAN. We are so obsessed!

Price: the shiplap with the paint ended up costing $126 - NOT TOO BAD!!!!! Those sweet letters from Hobby Lobby were $23 each - another huge win!!!!!! I MEAN!!! The electrical extenders were all of $2 each.

Goodness, it turned out so great! Thanks for sharing. You are one of the features at the Make It Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Here is the link to this week's bash! http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/2016/08/make-pretty-monday-week-188.html Have a happy rest of the week! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

Nicole here! Welcome to my little space where I record our projects, home renovations and design dabbles. I'm a coffee psycho, miter saw enthusiast, home inspiration featurer and oh yeah! A wife, mama to three humans and one big doggy. Jesus is our homeboy, so with those points as priorities, it's a pretty sweet life over here! Stay a bit!

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